LONDON, Oct. 15 (UPI) -- The color of a wind turbine affects how many insects it attracts, revealing why birds and bats are sometimes killed by the turbines, a British study says.
Scientists say insects are attracted to the turbines, mostly painted white or gray, which then attracts birds and bats that are killed when they pursue their prey into the path of the turbine blades, the BBC reported Friday.
The white or gray colors are meant to make the turbines visually unobtrusive, but tests showed they attracted more insects than any other color except yellow.
"We found it extremely interesting that the common turbine paint colors were so attractive to insects," Chloe Long of Loughborough University said.
The least attractive color to insects was purple, the researchers said.
They also found the ultraviolet and infrared components of paint color, invisible to humans but not to insects, also attracted them.
